Main Floor Makeover

When we toured the home without the distraction of the previous owners belongings we noticed that the entire house had been painted the same color... not necessarily an issue but when the wall color is splashed on without much attention given to quality of workmanship paintmanship (?) we knew something NEEDED to be done.

So we went to the paint store and choose some colors... a lot of colors

8 Different room colors 

and 11 gallons of Swiss Coffee to use on the ceilings, baseboards, crown molding, and doors.

The sitting room/Liz's office prior to our intervention...

We chose to use Cornflower Blue on the upper portion of the wall and keep the lower portion neutral by using the Swiss Coffee color to mimic wainscoting (Ben's fantastic idea)

The roll-top desk was a Craig'slist find

One of the things I love most about moving is finding "new places" for all of our "old things".  Most of the items in this room are repurposed with the exception of the chairs and pillows which were purchased from Target - on sale just after Christmas.  

We love the natural light from these windows and although we usually leave the shutters open they are a nice addition to the room.  

The dining room prior to the Yoder version of Color Splash

Watch out David Bromstad

Because we have a eat in kitchen we decided to utilize color to make the formal dining room... well formal.  We used Lyndhurst Mahogany as the accent color and Oatbran as the main wall color.  Of course we used Swiss Coffee for the chair rail, trim, and ceiling.

Ok I must confess that the remainder of the main floor has been neglected.  We are in the process of determining the color for the fireplace room but have yet to finalize our decision and pick up our paint brushes.  

Here is the "blank canvas" that is our fireplace room

As you can see we still are enduring enjoying the window treatments we inherited from the previous owners.  I have a few ideas on how to update them but first we need new blinds but really we need new windows...so its a waiting game...

Then there is the kitchen...

On its surface the kitchen is serviceable but our house was built 22 years ago and the kitchen stayed there - no really it is STUCK in the 80's!  Luckily, the footprint of the kitchen is well designed so once we save up ALL of our pennies we will be able to do a major remodel but won't have to do a total overhaul!  For now here it is...

See that lovely folding table - oh yeah that is classy!

At least it has a tablecloth

Oh and in case you are wondering I know that we have a black fridge and dishwasher with a white oven and microwave.  These were mostly inherited choices - when we toured the home it had a beige fridge but the previous owners took it with them.  Thus, we had the opportunity to "even things out a bit" by purchasing a black fridge.

Oh I can't wait to update this space and blog about our adventures in home demo and remodeling. But don't hold your breath it will be YEARS until I have the joy of using a sledge hammer!

making a house a home

Our Home in STL

After months of looking for a home we finally found this one although it is unlike any of the homes we have previously owned we decided it was "the one"!  Luckily it had only been on the market for 12 days and we were able to work with the sellers to come to an agreement on price and closing date.  So... 4 and a half months after our offer was accepted we closed on our home. We still had two months left on rental so we decided to take that time and work on some home improvements, mainly painting before we put in new carpets.   

The long overdue updates

It has been many months since our last post and in all honesty I have no good excuse.  We are at a place now where I feel ready to once again share our lives with the "computer community". I am working on a series of posts to fill in the holes from the missing months...

Being at Peace

Life at the Yoder house is in transition

Things seem to be more "in the air" than "firmly rooted"

As I seek to find peace in the daily upheaval 

It is the little things that remind me to focus on the present

Today I found inspiration in this...

and I realize that each moment with those I love is a gift

may this bring you a moment of peace as well

The Christmas Card that Wasn't

We typically do a family Christmas card every year but this year I decided forgo our card.  No I am not losing the holiday spirit and we actually had a FAMILY picture to use this year instead of just a picture of the girls.  The thing was I only had one picture I liked of the whole family and I really wanted to use it to make "we moved" cards.  Since this will be our LAST move for a while (I REALLY MEAN IT... this time) I wanted to celebrate in style and send photo cards with our new address instead of the mass e-mail or facebook post we often resort to when we change addresses.  Soooo when push came to shove something had to give so I decided not to do Christmas cards (just this one year - I swear!) but I could not help but take one card worthy shot of our girls...

Papa at Christmas time

My dad drove up from Oklahoma to spend Christmas with us.  Usually this trip is pretty uneventful but as mother nature has a mind of her own there was a snow storm in Oklahoma on Christmas eve. Luckily he left early enough to avoid the storm and made it here safely.  We had a fantastic time with him here and the girls really enjoyed spending the holiday with their grandpa.

The girls are currently OBSESSED with princesses!!! Not only do they frequently dress like a princess they use princess silverware, eat off princess plates, wear princess underwear, etc.  This Christmas added to the princess theme at our house.  Audra received a new dress from grandma and grandpa

The matching crown was a "find" from our after christmas shopping and of course Phoebe needed a crown too!

The girls chose to give each other princess dolls for gifts. Funny thing is Audra carries around all four of the big princesses and Phoebe carries around all of the little ones (Four dolls from the Strawberry Shortcake series that Grandma and Grandpa gave the girls).

Phoebe and her doll collection!

The Most Patient Dog

So OK I will admit that we are slightly obsessed with the dog, Ben more than I, but she was our "first" baby so what are you going to do?  Since she is a member of the family she HAS to have her own Christmas stocking which I support (poor thing never has anything in it but don't tell her - she really does not know the difference!).

However when Ben wanted to do this...

I was skeptical!

But being the trooper that she is Greta willingly went along for the ride.

She even posed for me as I was laughing at the fact that she actually did fit into the stocking...

 

The Potty Princess

This is the typical scene at our house...

(yep there is a potty under there somewhere)

We started potty training Phoebe in October after visiting some friends in Indiana and getting some great advice (Thanks Sara!) about how to go about the whole process.  Let them be NAKED!  Hey, it worked for their 18 month old it should work for our 25 month old.  And it did!!!! After about a day and a half Phoebe had and hang of it and we really have not had any accidents - except a few overnight misses (but now she is waking up to go!)  I have convinced her that it is OK to wear clothes now but I can't seem to get her to take off the princess dress to use the potty.  Oh well, I guess even a princess has to go to the bathroom!

Long Overdue

Happy REALLY LATE Thanksgiving

Due to Ben's vacation schedule we were not able to take off during the week of Thanksgiving but we were able to schedule a short vacation the previous week. We drove down to Oklahoma to be with my family for a while and then headed to Kansas to see Ben's family.  We had a fantastic time but for some reason these are the only pictures taken with my camera the entire time

My 90 year old grandmother made the trip out to Oklahoma from Arizona ALONE.  I am pretty sure this will be her last solo trip but she gets around great so who knows.  It was great to see her and the rest of the family as well!

While in Indiana...

we had a date - a play date!

While in Goshen I was able to get together with three of my college girlfriends and their kids

Leah - recently moved back to the area with her husband and son

Rachel - was in town with her two girls from Florida

Sara - lives in town with her three girls

the four of us lived together in a house during college with eight other fantastic women!

To say it was difficult to take a picture of 8 kids and get them to all look at the camera at the same time would be a slight understatement  - here is the best one.

The three oldest girls had a blast playing dress up!

Lunch time really is the best time!

Sara has a great play ground in the back yard which of course all the kids LOVED and now Audra and Phoebe are begging for one.

Baby Samantha is the newest member of the Chupp family and she is the cutest three week old

While we don't have the opportunity to get together as often as we would like we have a great time when we are able to be in town at the same time.  I am really looking forward future play dates and I hope that next time even more of the Shoup Ladies can join us!

While in Indiana...

we played in the leaves...

So my sister and her husband are finally in their new house which made this visit a particularly exciting one.  One of the best things about their new house is the green space - well really the trees. On their property they have 40, 40+ foot tall trees!  So while we were there we helped them rake up a TON of leaves.

Audra L O V E D playing in the leaves! Once a big enough pile was made she took a running leap and had herself a fantastic time!

Phoebe was another story...

She would not jump in and when I offered to jump in with her she would not have it so...

I just stuck her in the pile and let her figure it out from there

At first she just stood here but then...

In the end our leaf raking earned us all "allergy issues" but the fun was SO worth it!

While in Indiana...

we went to the park...

27 and still a kid at heart!

I loved that Phoebe found a Jayhawk to ride on - seriously a Jayhawk in IN - what are the odds?

Even Anna got in on the action!

It was super cute to see how excited Phoebe and Audra were that Anna could play on the ride with them!